Birmingham legend Odetta to be celebrated in tribute concert

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By Alli Patton

Blues vocalist Gina Coleman was performing at the Capitol Oyster Bar in Montgomery, Alabama a few years ago when a patron approached her to say, “Your voice sounds just like Odetta’s. You should do a tribute to Odetta.” 

Little did that guest know, such a project had been 30 years in the making. However, it would be more than just a routine homage to the Birmingham-born powerhouse, commonly referred to as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement.” Coleman, alongside her Massachusetts-based band Misty Blues, had been pulling out all the stops to honor the legend through a pair of tribute albums.

Coleman and her band will soon bring Odetta back home, performing a live tribute to the Birmingham legend at the historic Carver Theatre on Saturday, April 19. While Coleman has previously performed some of the star’s works in the Magic City, this will be the first time the entire accompaniment will be present to honor the icon. 

An unexpected encounter

“I met [Odetta],” Coleman said. “I spent an entire evening with her, and she was just a light. I can’t fully express it. I tell folks all the time, it was like looking into the sun. You were drawn to it, but then you had to look away. Her aura was just incredible.”

It was the early 1990s, and the young singer was attending an Arlo Guthrie performance at New York City’s now-shuttered club, The Bottom Line. 

“I saw her at the entrance, but I couldn’t conjure. I’m like, ‘I know this person, I know this person,’ and I couldn’t conjure who it was. Then the attendant seats her right next to me at this large, round reserved table,” Coleman said. 

Shortly after everyone was seated, a woman at the table suggested they all make introductions. 

“ So I’m like, ‘I’m Gina Coleman from the Berkshires,’ and like, ‘Hurry along, I want to find out who this is.’ It comes all the way around and then she says, ‘Hello, I’m Odetta.’ I nearly fell out.” 

Despite being brief, Coleman described the run-in as “transformative,” especially after witnessing a no-frills interaction between the icon and another concertgoer. 

“Before the show started, this patron rushes up to Odetta and says, ‘Do you remember me? Do you remember me?’” Coleman said. “ Odetta kind of recoils and says, ‘Child, I’m too old for games. Tell me who you are’ … At that moment, I’m like, ‘I’m going to do something around this woman’s work.’”

Over the last couple of years, Coleman and Misty Blues have been hard at work recording and releasing two live albums – 2023’s Tell Me Who You Are and I’m Too Old For Games from 2024 – in honor of the musical titan that she had encountered those three decades ago.

“It was really after the first tribute album that I realized we didn’t do enough,” Coleman said. “We had all these accolades and we were hitting these charts. Then we realized that we were probably the first band to do a full tribute album to Odetta and that was absolutely unbelievable to me. I turned back to the band and I said, ‘We can’t let her music slip into obscurity. We got to double down and do another album.’”

The Magic City performance

It’s no secret the city of Birmingham has bred innumerable musical greats. Few, however, have been as influential as Odetta. Her music – her distinct blend of folk, blues, and spirituals – would soundtrack a landmark moment in American history and she would become an important – albeit often unsung – figure in shaping the folk music we hear today. 

“You can expect quality musicianship,” Coleman explained of the upcoming showcase. “We really enjoy playing with each other, and you’ll see that there’s a joy in performing with each other … In between, I will give you little nuggets about Odetta or information about the song that we’re about to do, so you can have some context.”

Paying tribute to Odetta, however, is no easy feat.

“I have a lot of people ask me, ‘How do you even touch Odetta?’” Coleman said. “I’m like, ‘I know it was brazen of me.’ The thing that I always rely on is the musicianship of my band. I know they’ll be able to treat her music properly and I rest in the security of my musicians.”

In terms of her own vocal approach, Coleman has been more concerned with the words she’s singing rather than the style in which she’s presenting them. 

“Diction was paramount in the recording of these albums. You understood every single word that came out of [Odetta’s] mouth. It was crystal. What she was singing in many tunes was about the plight of her people. The typical blues singer is almost like you have marbles in your mouth. It’s more of an emotive genre, and I needed to be able to merge that emotion along with the clarity of the lyrics, so that was really my hyper-focus in the recording and the live tribute. At least, I hope in live tribute, I do that.”

No matter the difficulty, for Coleman and Misty Blues, the tributes have always been an endeavor worth pursuing, a labor of love.

“It’s absolutely terrifying every time I do it, but I can’t stop doing it,” Coleman said. “How do I live up to this icon? I don’t. I just have to say, ‘No, you’re honoring her, you’re not replicating her.’”